Pediatric cancer is not rare.
That was a big part of the message Gold Out coordinator Judy Strauser was expressing during Sunday’s Gold Out near the tennis courts at Wapakoneta High School.
“I’ve counted 20 children that were diagnosed since my son, Jason, was diagnosed in 2004,” Strauser said. Jason Strauser passed away in 2011.
Strauser also shared a few statistics.
• This year, the parents of 15,700 kids will hear the words, “Your child has cancer.”
• Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S.
• 12 percent of those diagnosed will not survive.
• The average age of children diagnosed with cancer is six years old.
• More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year.
• 60 percent of child cancer survivors suffer other medical effects later in life.
* There are approximately 375,000 adult survivors of pediatric cancer in the U.S.
Strauser added that there is a high rate of pediatric cancer in Wapakoneta.